Ramos is fudging main issue

GOBBLEDEGOOK scaled the language barrier down in a crowded corridor of Stamford Bridge. Juande Ramos of Tottenham and Spain, like Fabio Capello of England and Italy, requires a crash course in English.

Ramos’ explanation for the continued absence from his team of Paul Robinson made no sense, even after it was translated. Football’s special code of fudge and dodge is recognisable whatever its accent.

“If players play too many games in a row they need a rest now and again,” Ramos said, in an offering which will surprise most professional goalkeepers, who know they are the men who were playing into their forties way back in the less scientifically fit days of Dino Zoff and Peter Shilton.

“Only one keeper can play in any one game at a time,” Ramos went on, confirming something which wasn’t a complete surprise to an audience which had indeed just watched Radek Cerny performing alone for Spurs for the full 90 minutes of the 2-0 defeat by Chelsea. “Paul played 14 or 15 games in a row and needed a rest in order to recuperate.”

That many. No wonder the feller is worn out. No wonder he had to spend the afternoon on the bench again, as he did at the Emirates in the Carling Cup semi-final against Arsenal the previous Wednesday.

Okay, perhaps it’s a little too easy to poke some gentle fun at Ramos after he has only been in the Premier League for two months. But the Robinson issue is an important one because it could affect the national team.

If Capello can’t watch a selection of our best keepers, he could be tempted eventually down the abhorrent route of selecting the Spaniard Manuel Almunia of Arsenal, who continues to make noises about taking up UK residency qualifications. The new Tottenham boss’s odd manner of trying to talk away this situation also encapsulated a current problem with the club as it seeks to enter a new era.

His words were ponderous, just like his team’s performance on Saturday. Until Ramos can communicate fluently, none of us can really know what he is attempting.

And you guess that also goes for his players, who looked a notch below the seasoned professionalism and purpose of Chelsea. Dimitar Berbatov looked nothing like a £35million striker. On this evidence, there doesn’t seem much future in a partnership with Robbie Keane.

As Chelsea paraded yet another £15m worth of new firepower in the form of Nicolas Anelka, you couldn’t help wonder how much Ramos might need to spend to gatecrash the fenced-off playground of the Big Three.

For the purposes of TV, Spurs wheel out Gus Poyet, Ramos’s number two. His words held much more logic: “Chelsea controlled the game and they are a team that, even if they are not playing well, will find a way to score and get the points.”

Avram Grant continued to insist that his team’s brand of football is now much more attractive than it was under Jose Mourinho. “We don’t use long balls,” he said. “We like combinations and passing.”

This was an efficient performance out of the old mould rather than anything to match the dazzle of Manchester United.

But buying Anelka is a start. Even in his appearance here, his ability was striking. Anelka has that rare quality of being able to stop, keep the ball and think before he moves. He may have found the right stage at the right point of his career to fulfil properly all of his fine potential.